MSPs need to be able to establish the truth about salmon farm conditions
Committee inquiries by MPs and MSPs are an important part of our democracy
Standing in a biting wind, with intermittent snowfalls, for a picture at the most northernly point in the British Isles probably isn’t everyone’s idea of a good day out. I loved it, because that visit to Shetland with other MPs was an important part of a Scottish Affairs Select Committee investigation into Scotland’s potential as a centre for the growing UK space industry.
Visits like that one, to see the Saxa Vord space port, or to a satellite manufacturing company in Glasgow are how parliament makes the judgments that shape our future. They create our knowledge of industries, raise awareness of how we’re dealing with both crises and opportunities, and provide insight into scientific research.
An important industry
To see this week that doubt was being cast on an important visit by colleagues in Scotland raised alarm bells. I do not know if the claims made by an animal charity that they had filmed tonnes of dead and dying salmon being removed from a fish farm before MSPs arrived were genuine. Or whether, as the company statement said, that this was a normal operation, not an attempt to conceal anything.
What I do know is that our MSPs always need to know the truth. Salmon farming is such an important industry in Scotland, indeed the UK, as our biggest food export with an estimated value in 2022 of £578 million.
In recent years, it has been dogged with concerns about sea lice and damage to the marine environment. The charity behind the claims, Animal Equity UK, says the industry tries to hide the truth, rather than deal with concerns. Holyrood’s rural affairs committee has said that it has heard concerns about mortality rates in farmed fish during its inquiry and acknowledged that the charity’s film raised questions.
Partygate, broadband, arms exports
This highlights a wider issue for all of us involved in politics: it is vital not only that we ask the right questions but that we get full and correct information. Select committees are very often an under-recognised part of our democracy, in both parliaments.
Drugs deaths, the rollout of broadband, and the relationship between our two governments are just a few of the inquiries I’ve been involved in. Others have investigated UK arms exports, violence against women and girls. It was the Commons’ privileges committee which carried out the investigation into Partygate which ultimately brought down Boris Johnson.
Parliamentary committees’ work is too important to be the vehicle for publicity stunts or to be undermined by not allowing all the evidence to be seen.
Space race
That trip to Unst in Shetland this year was part of an inquiry which taught me and my colleagues so much about the potential in Scotland to develop a space industry on the same model as the world leaders in California.
From California, we learned not only about the academic environment that we would need to replicate, but about the high regard in which the US’s main players hold the University of Edinburgh.
We cannot afford the work of any committee or the value of their reports to be undermined by questions about the evidence. We cannot be the best representatives possible if we don’t receive the true information. Our future needs their work to be valued.
Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West
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